The fearsome-looking participants in a Viking fire festival known as Up Helly Aa live in Scotland's remote Shetland Islands, a wind-whipped northern archipelago where many claim descent from Scandinavian raiders. They are cool to the idea of Scotland leaving Britain to form an independent nation, and determined that their rugged islands — closer to Norway than to Edinburgh — will retain their autonomy, whatever the outcome of September's referendum.

"Shetland is different. We have Viking blood in our veins," said the procession's magnificently bearded chief Viking, or Jarl — by day a local authority housing officer named Keith Lobban.

There are only 23,000 Shetlanders, too few to make much difference to the outcome of the independence vote. But they have Viking-sized confidence, and a big bargaining chip: a chunk of Britain's oil and gas reserves lie beneath Shetland waters.

Viking expansion map and i'm surprised they were able to travel and raid so far down south into Russia and beyond practically within the middle east and Paris as well (if there even was a Paris back then?) without being cut off and wiped out...

If i saw and heard this beastly female berserker attacking my town i'd get the hell outta dodge real damn fast!

my dads side of the family are all Glaswegian.. we aren't vikings though.. (i wish)

i think Scotland should be independent from "Britain".. its about bloody time! and while they are there they can give Northern Ireland back to Ireland, Wales can be on their own too, its not like anyone can understand anything they say..